How to Troubleshoot and Correct the 503 Error on YouTube Across Computers and Smartphones

5KPlayer > YouTube Download > YouTube Error 503

Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links

If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

YouTube Error 503? How to Fix it on Computer/Android/iPhone?

Written by Kaylee Wood | Last updated: April 26, 2020

Is there message “There was a problem with the network [503]“ or “An error occurred, please try again later” when trying to access youtube.com? If your answer is yes, you are encountering YouTube error 503 service unavailable issue. That is to say, when Google’s server breaks down, you will find you are stuck on “YouTube 503 service unavailable” and can’t login, upload or watch contents. However, this error is no that terrifying, it can be fixed easily.

What is YouTube Error 503 >>
How to Solve YouTube Error 503 >>

What Is YouTube Error 503?

YouTube error 503 message means “service unavailable”. Generally, the error happens when the site’s server is simply not available for now or when the server is overloaded and cannot handle the high volume of traffic. It can happen in any browser and operating system on any iPhone, Android phone, tablet and computer with possible 503 error message showing “An error has occured”, “Playback error. Tap to retry”, “Connection to server lost”, “This video is unavailable” or “Something went wrong. Tap to Retry”. The YouTube 503 error is usually associated with a temporary condition, but this bad service issue can also get worse. The most terrible condition is the one happening on Oct 16, 2018 that lets YouTube suffer a very serious outage and get down over one hour.

By the way, YouTube error 500 is a similar error caused by server not working and often happens along with error 503 when YouTube is down . Compared to YouTube 503 service unavailable error, YouTube 500 error is an internal sever issue that happens unexpectedly at most times.

How to Fix YouTube Error 503 Server Issue?

Sometimes, you may find that error 503 YouTube doesn’t happen to all users at the same time, probably YouTube in England works well while gets down with error code 503 in the United States. Under such condition, it is possible that there is something wrong with your end. You can follow the solutions here to see if they work. Besides, not only YouTube, you could see error 503 in various forms on different platforms especially on popular and high-traffic websites. So, hope these workarounds could help.

Method 1. Refresh YouTube Video Pages.

As the YouTube error 503 is often a temporary issue that caused by a sudden overwhelming traffic, often the case that you can get everything back after a refresh.
1. Right-click the YouTube page -> hit Refresh
2. Press “F5” or “Ctrl +F5” on the keyboard to refresh the webpage.
3. Just click the refresh icon the top left corner of the webpage to reload this page.
4. Try the Back/Forward buttons to get through YouTube 503 server issue.

Method 2. Check the Network
When YouTube error 503 server issue happens, there is often a “There was a problem with the network [503]“ message reminding you of that there must something wrong with the network. Though this is most the server fault of the YouTube website, it is not bad to make sure your network is strong.

Method 3. Restart Router, Computer or Device
Maybe there’s an issue with the DNS server configurations on your router or computer, just a restart may solve this issue.

Method 4. Wait for Official Support
If you have tried these methods but nothing works, this means it is a problem of YouTube website. You can do nothing but just wait the support team to fix YouTube error 503 service issue.

Also read: